Case Study: HPC Real-Time FERC Solution at We Energies

We Energies (WE) provides electric service to 2.2 million customers in portions of Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and maintains more than 45 thousand miles of electric distribution lines and over 350 substations. In 2012, WE wanted improve its regulatory reporting processes in order to satisfy regulators more easily, and to facilitate its eventual migration to the SAP New General Ledger. WE selected HPC America's Real-Time FERC Solution for the SAP New GL, which enables utilities running the New GL to generate real-time regulatory reporting data without using the "classic" FERC module. Read the complete case study to learn more about the benefits WE gained from HPC's latest groundbreaking FERC solution for utilities on SAP.

New Project: Automated SAP FERC Processing

This week kicks off a new project for another utility company on SAP. We're going to assess the utility's SAP FERC processes, many of which have become manual and are now conducted outside of SAP over the years. Our customer understandably wants to automate these labor-intensive steps, so we'll be considering a number of different ways to optimize their current configuration of the SAP regulatory reporting module and streamline its processes. 

We'll also take into account some related initiatives the company may undertake in the future -- such as leveraging Plant Maintenance further, utilizing the HR module, and migrating to the SAP New General Ledger -- and factor these elements into our FERC automation recommendations.

The net result of HPC's assessment will be a highly actionable report for the utility company. It will lay out several optimization paths to automate currently manual processes and to manage labor, fleet, and cost center costs more effectively within SAP, thereby minimizing the use of external spreadsheets and applications.

In our experience, many utilities that have been running SAP for years benefit from this type of rapid evaluation and action plan. Over time, the configuration of their FERC module and related business processes morph into something less than ideal, and the best way forward is an outsider's fresh look. If your regulatory reporting processes aren't easily managed within SAP, such that management can't get the data it requires quickly and efficiently, contact us to talk about your own assessment. And if you're considering a New GL migration as well, let's talk about prototyping it for you.

Functional Areas, FERC, and the SAP New General Ledger

We have now completed the proof-of-concept that secondary cost postings will indeed update the General Ledger. This was not possible prior to the New GL, except for cross-company transactions.

Contact us to learn more.

Stay turned for more updates on our progress later this summer.

New client work: SAP New GL prototyping for utility

We're pleased to announce that HPC will be starting a new project for a utility in the Midwest that intends to improve its financial reporting and gain more robust regulatory reporting. We'll help our client achieve this by exploring the impact of a transition from the classic FERC module to the SAP New General Ledger, which supports functional accounts by production, transmission, distribution, maintenance, A&G, customer accounts, and cost of energy.

HPC will also lead the prototyping of new master data such as cost centers and orders; the redesign of profit centers to enable business segment reporting; and the design of cost flows and overhead allocations. Through this modeling, the utility will be able to visualize results prior to starting the actual migration to production. And that is the best way to prepare for New GL migration in a way that meets all stakeholders' requirements and eliminates nasty surprises.